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| The Courier-Journal

U.S. Sen. and presidential hopeful Rand Paul has confirmed that Jack Hunter, also known as "the Southern Avenger," has resigned from his staff.

Hunter became a "distraction," Paul told a VFW audience Monday in Louisville.

Hunter, who was Paul's director of new media and a credited writer with the senator on the 2011 book "The Tea Party Goes to Washington," has called himself the "Southern Avenger" since 1999, according to the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online news site. ...